Learning a complex skill like programming can be tough. Doesn’t have to be. But when you’re starting out you will be experiencing those two block that will hold you back.

And yes this is totally normal. Even developers that have years of experience under their belts will experience those block from time to time. It’s just our natural reaction when we need to learn something new.

Watch this video to find out how to deal with those two blocks, get unstuck and get to your personal next level of programming (whatever it might be right now)

When you want to learn programming which programming language should you start with?

I found that there are basically two good answers to this questions depending on where you are in you career.

The answer will be different If you’re interesting in programming and you want to to do software or web development in the future vs. you want to learn programming because it will be a valuable skill in your current career.

When I was a beginner I tried to find the “best” editor to get started. So kept looking and looking and…looking and I wasn’t really doing any programming!

I see that a lot of people get stuck that way,so in this video I will talk about two key features that every editor for beginners should have and down below you can see my current favourite suggestions for editor that will be perfect for you if you’re beginner:)

Don’t forget to leave me a comment!

Ok, so my favourite editor (not only for beginners) right now is:
Atom: https://atom.io
It has everything you need to get started out of the box, it’s easy to use and has plenty of plugins if you need to get fancy (and yes it’s totally free):)

The speed of learning a new skill is very individual thing. If you think that you should learn quicker than you do, you might think that you’re not smart enough or not capable enough. I don’t think that’s the case at all.

In other words you have certain expectations about how much time do you need to learn something. How do you know how long should it take? As with most things, we ask others for clues.

And that’s the first problem. We set our expectations based on someone else’s experience. Which can be totally off the charts.

Mainly because most of us doesn’t really want to admin how long did it really take to learn something hard. We want to look smart in the eyes of others, so we tend to shorten the learning time lines in our stories.

Plus programming is really broad subject and different people can understand different things by “learning programming”

So, what’s better measurement of success in learning programming?

A far better way to measure your success is to measure it by completion of a small and interesting project. Especially at the beginning forget about speed.

Set aside a regular, fixed amount of time to work on your project.

Remove the time pressure if you can. If you learn something complex like programming time pressure is a killer. It will slow you way way down.

And the surprising thing is, that you will move much quicker that you might except. You will be more focused. You will “get it” quicker.

To move at full speed you need to remove everything from your environment that distracts you including focusing on how fast are you doing.

Is it true that it takes a lot of time to learn coding? That if you didn’t learn it early in life it’s too late for you?

Recently I’ve come across a question on twitter about reasons why we think we can’t code? One answer got me thinking. Penny commented that “Because as a 30+ year old beginner I’m already 15+ years behind.”

If you think that’s true read on.

I will explain few assumptions in Penny’s comment that aren’t necessarily true. We will also discover what’s really important in learning programming and why age is not one of those things.

The first assumption is that you have to start learning coding really young.

I can relate to that. I’ve started playing with code when I was nine.I had plenty of time to learn.I could experiment and make mistakes.

Having a lot of time is important,but it’s not enough. You have to know how to spend it. My horizons where broad but not too deep.

Then you are in constant learning mode. You absorb a lot of informations from a lot different sources and thinking about a lot of things. This openness certainly helps. Your thinking is flexible.

Those two conditions makes learning programming much easier,but I think they can be overrated…

It’s because later in life you develop two very powerful abilities. Both really helpful when learning new skills.

And that brings me to the second false assumption. It’s 15 years timeline that Penny has mentioned.

I think it’s possible to learn much quicker when you’re 30+ rather than when you’re 15+. And it’s not really about the age itself, it’s about what we learn later on in life.

While going through life we develop one very powerful ability.

It’s focus. I remember that I was pretty distracted when I was younger. I couldn’t focus on one thing. I’ve jumped from concept to concept.

Focus is essential in learning process. Good focus cuts learning time a lot.

Second is the ability to know what you want, the ability to set clear objectives. It’s a way to selectively choose to learn parts that you will use the most.

You learn that pretty quickly at a job. After spending some time in the trenches you know exactly what you need to know to survive.

So if you learning programming don’t think about it as this huge task that takes a decade to master. Just think about one small thing that you can create that can possible grow into something useful. Then focus on one piece at the time.

Mastery is the ability to learn incrementally. Occasional leaps are possible,but only if you master the process.